An Oshawa area woman who was severely injured after a large piece of concrete was thrown onto her moving car is determined to spread the word this type of prank can kill.
Nadia McLean was in Sudbury to visit her parents this weekend,
and she shared her story with Northern Life.  She sports a
large scar across her cheek up to her eye, and down past her
nose to her lip.
Following the Jan. 29 attack, her injuries were so horrific,
a picture of her taken in the hospital ran in Ontario
newspapers and on television newscasts.
At about 2 am Jan. 29, she was driving a car full of friends
down Highway 401 when a "sinister looking" man deliberately
dropped the concrete on her car from an overpass.
The object struck her and tore a chunk out of the right side
of her face.
Although she got a good look at the man before he dropped
the concrete, police still haven't made an arrest.
During her long recovery, McLean has researched the
phenomenon of people throwing objects at cars.  It's
frighteningly common, she says.
There have been two recent incidents in Sudbury similar to
what happened to her, where people threw objects at cars, and
in one case causing minor injuries.
"I speak to friends of mine, and they say, 'I did that when
I was a kid,' and a lot of people don't realize how
ridiculously dangerous throwing something into traffic is,"
says McLean, who lives with her fiancée Gabriel Gagnon in
Courtice, a small town near Oshawa.
"With most of them, their intention is to get a laugh out of
it or see the car swerve. Not one of them has had good
consequences."
The 28-year-old Laurentian University graduate, who teaches
at a high school in Whitby, hopes to return to work May 1
depending upon whether she's scheduled for more surgery.
McLean knows of a Toronto man who is now blind and
permanently brain damaged after someone threw a 30-pound
boulder at his car.
"He was 18 years old, and a handsome young man, and going to university and everything.
He's still at home and he's 29 years old," she says. "It's
disgusting what people can do. Poor guy."
McLean's younger brother, Eric, saved her life the night she
was injured, and probably a lot of other lives too.
The young man, who is also a teacher, was in the passenger
seat. He grabbed the emergency brake and steered the vehicle
against a guardrail.
"We were on the 401, there was three lanes of traffic, there
were cars all around me, and we were five in the car. That
could have been a fatal accident. It just so happened my
brother was quick-thinking and stopped the car," she says.
"He was very clear-minded. He acted like an EMT (emergency
medical technician) almost. He put his jacket on my face, told
me not to move, he was very calm until somebody else got there.
He's my hero."
McLean's recovery has been long and painful. The concrete
caused significant damage to her face, especially her upper
palette. In the hours following the incident, surgeons wired
her jaw, and grafts from her hip bone were used to reconstruct
her palette.
Since then, she's had minor surgery to remove the arch bars
in her mouth holding her palette together, as well as a lot of
dental work. Her palette will eventually have to be re-broken
because it didn't fuse together properly.
"I'm doing quite well. I still have pain in different times of the day. It's not an intolerable pain.
It's like little splurts...Right now, I'm getting something
in my nose, and it feels like somebody's stabbing me in the
face."
Despite everything, McLean and her fiancée never considered
putting off their wedding, which will take place July 15 at a
church near their home. Gagnon was her "rock" throughout her
recovery.
"There was no question in mind once I realized I was
physically going to be OK," she says.
"It always has given me something to look forward to. It's kept me busy, that's for sure. For me, it's one of my motivations to get better faster, and to do my physiotherapy, because I don't like doing that."
